Peace Corps Macedonia Archive

Suggestions for incoming Peace Corps volunteers

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2006-09-01T01:16:01Z

I've thought about making a little list of suggestions for incoming Macedonia PC Volunteers. The new group (MK 11) will be here sometimes towards the end of September. There are 51 of them, the biggest group ever, and they will almost double the number of volunteers in-country (assuming they all last through training). So, here's my list. some packing tips and attitude-related suggestions. Packing -

bring your hobby. and i don't just mean backgammon (ok that probably won't be a hobby until AFTER you have come here ). if you love your nintendo 64 or x-box, why not bring it? like movies? bring them. a frisbee (regulation size, please -- the kids in our training village loved throwing the frisbee once they got the hang of it). running shoes. a football.
bring a sleeping bag. i didn't bring one, but about 90% of the other vols did. i felt pretty left out and cried many nights about this. i ended up ordering one from the US and having a friend who was going home for a wedding bring it back for me. if you get a new fancy one, it will stuff up all tiny and not take much suitcase room. you probably don't need it to be safe in arctic temperatures, since mostly you'll use it in other volunteer apartments.
don't weigh yourself down with books. bring a couple favorites, but not a whole library. they're heavy and there are many books to read in-country. the PC office has a library with a couple hundred books and volunteers are constantly trading them back-and-forth.
measuring cups and spoons. if you like to measure, that is. macedonian recipes tend to roughly measure sugar, flour, butter, etc, in grams and liquids in 'cups,' as in, a cup that you drink out of, approximately. somethings are measured in 'spoons' but that just means a spoon from the cupboard. while this method works great for some, we americans tend to do things like measure a 1/3 cup and then carefully scrape the top with a butter-knife.
digital camera/laptop/ipod if you like these things. most volunteers bring them and consider them vital to their sanity. if you're buying a new laptop, i'd recommend getting a reliable one, because if it breaks, there is no way to get it fixed under warranty without taking it to the US or Western Europe. The latest consumer reports survey has Apple, Toshiba, and Sony as producing the most reliable laptops, ranked in that order. Something to consider.
i wish i would have brought a nice sharp cooking knife. every one i buy seems to be crap. could be that i haven't looked hard enough though.
don't bring anything that requires an electric TRANSFORMER (sometimes referred to erroneously as a converter). over the course of two years, it will get plugged in by you or someone else without the voltage transformer and then pop! it's all over for that device. Guaranteed. Seriously. Only bring electronics/appliances that need a simple ADAPTER. If this is confusing, then see footnote 1.

Your 'tude:

yes, i just said 'tude
try not to 'compete' with your fellow volunteers. for some reason, the training period brings out some bizarre competition among some people. in washington, this can manifest itself as a game of who-has-travelled-the-most-and-makes-the-most-references-that-no-one-can-relate-to, who-has-studied-macedonian-before-coming, etc. just try to relax as best you can and enjoy the company of your fellow volunteers, who will come to be some of your best friends in the world. keep this advice in mind as you go through training, and do your best to avoid passive-aggressive language-learning-speed competitions and my-training-site-is-tougher-cause-i-don't-have-a-toilet competitions. this kind of stuff just adds to all of the stress you'll be going through.
relax, relax, relax. you won't be in control of your living situation and you won't be able to communicate with people. it's okay. if you're a type-A personality, start thinking of your coping strategies, because you won't be able to control 95% of what goes on around you.
language learning is different for everyone. if you're good at it, don't ever, ever passively or actively put down people who aren't so good. if you're not so good, it's not the end of the world. you can be an outstanding volunteer even if you only speak the basic phrases. language learning can be very personal and sensitive, so try to keep that in mind.
try not to define your peace corps experience by your living conditions. you will probably have indoor plumbing and you will definitely have electricity and internet access. you'll be able to eat at McDonald's and buy soy sauce. after you've been a volunteer for 8 or 9 months you won't think so much about these things, but at first they tend to dominate our thoughts since we haven't quite figured out what we're doing here. you won't be able to afford to pay someone to do your wash and fetch you water, but on the other hand, it isn't that hard with a faucet and washing machine.

That's all i've got for now. I'll probably update this post in the next few days with things that I will have forgotten to include. If any incoming folks have questions, shoot me an email (sickmiller AT gmail)

Footnote 1

Item 1: This is an electric TRANSFORMER (may be called a converter). It lets you plug in something that will only use American Voltage (110 Volts) and steps voltage up to the European standard (220 Volts). Common items needing a transformer include irons, hair dryers, battery chargers, blenders, and small appliances.

Item 2: This is a simple ADAPTER. It simply allows the American plug shape to fit into a European outlet. What you are plugging in, however, MUST BE ABLE TO HANDLE EUROPEAN VOLTAGE. If not, it will pop, fizz, maybe smoke, and that will be the end of your contraption. Items that require only the simple adapter include Laptop Computers, iPods, and most gaming systems (Playstation 2, etc) -- however, you should always check to see what the voltage input of the device is. This brings us to:

Item 3: This is a special battery charger I bought from USA that can handle both American voltage (110 volts) and European voltage (220 volts). If you look at the blownup picture (click it) and at what I circled in RED, you can see where it says what voltage the device will handle. Every single device you own that plugs into the wall will have a similar marking. If the device has a "power brick" like laptops have, then it will be written on that. If it says 100-240V or 110-220V or something similar, than it can handle American AND European voltages. If it says 100-120V or 110V or something similar, it can only handle AMERICAN voltage, and would require a Transformer, and I would NOT recommend bringing it with you to Macedonia...because over the course of two years, an accident will happen. So if you're bringing or shopping for an electronic something, only bring it/buy it if it says it can handle 110V and 220V (written usually as 100-240V or similar). * for more in-depth info on this stuff, check this link

Hydration is Key

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2006-07-24T02:36:54Z

on days like these...check our our weekly forecast: translation? translation? really hot. the most annoying part is that during the day there isn't much relief from the heat. get up, walk to the bus stop, get on a non-airconditioned bus full of equally hot people, often standing too close together, and then go to work in a non-airconditioed office. the good part? we have air-conditioning in our living room, so at least our home is safe! the exact opposite applied in the winter, so i'm really starting to have a passion for spring and fall. final translation? whine, whine, whine

Permission to be a bum

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2006-07-07T22:57:14Z

This morning we headed for a hike up Vodno, the mountain on the south side of Skopje. Picture of Vodno:

<img src="http://www.adamanddanielle.com/media/1/20060707-mileniumskikrst05.jpg" height="250" width="333" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Mileniumskikrst05" />.

Pictures of us at the top (and one along the way). Took about 2.5-3 hours up and about half that coming back. I'm sore now, but since I climbed a mountain this morning, I have a great excuse to do nothing else all day.

????? (Burek) Yummmmmmmm

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-02-18T19:46:02Z

Every single morning for breakfast, I have been eating this stuff:

It is my favorite of the local-type foods. They call it Burek (definition). Here is a recipe for it (Yugoslavian Burek). I'm not sure about the recipe and I'll probably never make it until I can't buy it from Burek shops. There are little burek shops on every corner. A quarter of a pie, how much someone ate from the Burek in the picture costs 30 denars, or about 65 cents. I used to eat an eigth-pie sized piece (15 denars, about 30 cents) but ever since moving up to the larger piece, I can't go back. It is sort of like subway, where the 6-inch sub is too small and the 12-inch is too big; the result is I stuff myself every day with the big piece. I never eat them with meat, as the recipe above calls for. I always eat it with spinach and cirenje, a feta-like cheese.

A better recipe. Maybe not better, but it sounds more like what I eat every day for breakfast. You're crazy to cut it into squares though, as the recipe says. Go for a giant quarter-pie sized piece. It isn't necessarily only a breakfast food, either.

So that's that. If you want to open a burek restaurant in the US (i bet it would be popular as a post night-out food) then let me know and I'll see if you're recipe is up to snuff.

Most Interesting Events of the Week

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-02-17T02:44:20Z

I went skiing last weekend, but I'm not counting that in this week since, well, it was last week.

1. Danielle turning 23. That is 23 years old, not turning 23 pancakes or slices of french toast on an electric griddle. I got her this great gift from Amazon that I ordered in what I thought was plenty of time. Of course, it still hasn't arrived. Fortunately I planned for this and because of the late package was able to give her a great bathrobe. Maybe you have read her journal, but we went out to this cool irish pub place and had a decent Macedonian version of some good american food. And then we went out for dessert and had a few things, one of which was called ?Nests with Fruit and Cream.? Titles like that happen when places attempt to translate their menu into English. A better translation would have been ?Space Ice Cream with Canned Peaches.? It was really good!

2. Valentine's Day. Danielle and I have had very successful valentine days. Two years ago we got engaged (although that was supposed to happen on her birthday, the day after, but I couldn't wait). Last year we had good steak and this year we had a relaxing dinner in the apartment. I wanted to buy a really nice, decently priced sparkling wine since it was the special day and everything, and I think the final choice bottle cost $3.50, about as expensive as a bottle gets here.

3. Bus accident. I was on a bus and it ran into the back of a taxi. I wasn't paying much attention and then suddenly I heard, *SMACK* followed by ?lei lei lei lei!? (translation: whoa whoa whoa whoa!) by a group of Macedonians on board. After this, the bus driver opened his door only to be yelled at by the taxi driver waiting outside. Things died down then and I took the next bus that went by.

4. Buying a sleeping bag. We bought one from a girl who had been here for two years and was going home but didn't have room for her bag. It is one of those fancy-shmancy expensive sleeping bags with all sorts of features and as it turns out, we really really like it. Unfortunately, it is about six inches to short for me, plus that whole thing where only one person can sleep in a sleeping bag. We want to do some small backpacking / camping trips with friends this spring, so I thought it would make sense to get a bag. Plus, every PC volunteer has one but me. So today I researched and researched and researched and just when I thought I had to spend a ton of money on a good sleeping bag I found this one: Sierra Designs Wild Bill. It is exactly what I need, has gotten great reviews, and is a good price. The next trick is to get it to Macedonia.

Where I work. And email notifications.

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-02-10T17:45:37Z

I'll get the first out of the way so that you can do this without clicking on the link at the bottom. I added this thing in the bottom right of the page where you can put in your email address to receive notifications for when I update the page. The second order of business--where I work. This is the complex where I work.

Clearly, it isn't very complex.

Continue reading "Where I work. And email notifications."

A couple of (boring?) pictures

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-01-31T23:47:54Z

Thought I would put two pictures up. One in honor of horses on the street and one in honor of snow. this is not abnormal. at all. snowy. blurry.

The Unhealthiest Vegetables

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-01-27T05:03:34Z

Zdravo. Some people asked me to say something in Macedonian, so there you go. It means hello and you'll never have to remember it or use it again unless you decide to vacation to a quirky semi-scenic, semi-democratic, semi-sane country at the bottom of the balkans.

So about the vegetables..

Continue reading "The Unhealthiest Vegetables"

High speed rail in Ohio

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-01-25T01:27:09Z

We have trains here in Macedonia. They stink, they are slow, they are horribly kept, cold in the winter, and you don't have to buy a ticket if you slip the conductor a few dollars. But at the same time they are wonderful. Something about riding trains is elegant and relaxing. Trains don't run into trees or do 360s when the roads are icy. They are a great way to travel, but for a whole host of reasons, have never really caught on the United States.

Continue reading "High speed rail in Ohio"

Cable ? ! ?

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-01-16T02:12:02Z

Poor us...here in a small little Peace Corps country and I am watching cable television! Yesterday a man or two came from the cable company came over and ran a cable into our apartment and now we have sixty channels. This is spectacular. About half of the channels are in English and we have BBC World, CNN International, ten or eleven Macedonian channels, a handful of discovery channels (Discovery Travel, Science, Civilization, etc.), Cartoon network, Turner's classic movies, and more! So yeah, poor poor us. And only $7 a month.

Something that is a little confusing and somehow related to the cable here is how the whole channel system works. There is this button on the remote that switches between two modes, ?C? and ?S? and if we hit that and then put in a couple numbers that we reference from the brochure they gave us it will go to the appropriate channel. Somehow we can't channel surf though, when we hit up and down on the remote it jumps about between the channels and some don't even work. This is really boring, yes, but I post it in case someone knows what I'm talking about and can tell me what to do. But anyhow, most everything works. The remote for our tv didn't work and I spent a long time poking around a very slow internet looking for an online version of the manual for our universal remote. I never even considered looking in the drawer under the TV. Guess where i found the manual? Not on the Internet!

What else has been going on? Danielle was a little under the weather so I took a day off work (me to work: ?Danielle is sick? work: ?Oh my! Don't work today! See you tomorrow, maybe, if she's okay!) and the Peace Corps medical folks did some tests and gave her some pills. And at work on Friday, it was insisted that I call and check up on Danielle, and leave early, of course, not that I'm complaining!

Missing good ol' kraft mac and cheese, Danielle and I attempted to construct our own version for dinner tonight. Ingredients: flour, milk, cheese, butter, noddles. Unfortunately, only two kinds of cheese is really available anywhere in Macedonia, one is Sirenje, this crazy salty ultra-flavorful cheese, and the other is Kashkaval, a mild cheese that at first tastes like mozzarella but has an after-taste resembling sour milk. We chose the Kashkaval for our experiment and managed to make a totally decent macroniish-noodles-and-cheese. Nothing at all like Kraft, so if you feel like sending us something, we love blue and orange.

I'm such an American

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-01-11T16:35:40Z

As it turns out, I'm more of an American than I thought. This hits me pretty hard since I spend so much time making fun of my country when I am living there. Here are some reasons that have led to my discovery that I am, in fact, an American (or at least that I'm not a Macedonian):

Soccer is stupid
Handball is stupid
Not having Mexican food is stupid
Paying for local calls is stupid
I support changing clothes at least twice during the week.
I don't like drinking coffee with strange repairmen in our apartment.
Food with a lot of oil is gross.
I expect television programming to be modeled after something other than 70s B-Movies

And, uh, yeah. There's tons of good stuff about this place too, but I'd rather complain. I'm so culturally sensitive.

It's Almost Christmas (plus an exciting shopping list)

nospam@example.com (Adam S) — 2005-01-07T23:08:05Z

No, I swear it is. The Orthodox Christmas is on Friday (January 7th) so all of the traditions associated with that are in full-swing. It starts like this: last night around 11pm, Danielle and I decided we needed some Coke and candy so we headed outside in search of this. We expected stores would be closed, but we ventured out anyways. We're on the 10th floor and the elevators have been broken, so we were obviously quite committed to the journey since we knew we would have to climb ten floors upon our return.

When we went outside in front of our building, there was a bon-fire and residents of the building were standing around eating and drinking and being merry. Despite the festivities we headed to the store and then on the way back inside we hoped someone would say something to us so that we would be able to stand around and chat and pretend to be Macedonian.

I said hello to the barber and this triggered a sequence of hospitable events, and we were offered food, sweets, and drink. I ate a couple tiny fish (good) a gelatin cube (search our site for ?gelatin cube? for more info?) and some sort of fig and Danielle and I each had a small glass of the cheap wine they were drinking. We met all kinds of neighbors and people in the building, most who have lived in the building for their whole lives. We stood out by the bonfire talking to fellow building members (everyone in the building knows each other) for maybe an hour and a half, until about one a.m.

We were informed that this morning we would probably be awoken by singing children wanting candy, etc. On the day before christmas (today) they do what is kind of like halloween and there are these kids who knock persistently on the door and sing at the top of their lungs. We prepared gifts of one piece of fruit, one piece of candy, and five denars (ten cents) to give to each loud singing kid. Two kids came by and it pretty much made our morning.

We also learned how to get cable. It's something like six bucks a month for sixty channels, about half of which are in English. I'd call and make an appointment, but the whole world is closed for the holidays so maybe next week.

And, in case you're wondering, here is our grocery list for today:

Pillow Cases (quick story: last night when we asked our neighbors where to get pillow cases we told them we had been using t-shirts for pillow cases thinking they would get a nice chuckle but rather they gasped: T-Shirts! Oh, my, you need help! My daughter will go with you to the market at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning!)
Mugs (Note: when I offer people coffee (of the stronger turkish variety), they expect a small glass but all i have are these 12-oz glasses so then our guests end up with an uncomfortable amount of coffee they may or may not feel obligated to drink)
Hooks
Containers that seal for leftovers
Toilet Paper
Three liters Milk
Granola
Noodles
Two kilos apples
Crushed red pepper (allegedly available fresh from the market, but i haven't seen it yet)
Cheap wine
Coffee
Chicken (maybe, if not too expensive)
Baking Powder
Bread. This doesn't really make the list though, since we buy a loaf every day by default

So that's it for this morning. I'm watching this horribly dubbed cartoon. As is the case with all American or European cartoons shown in this country, the voices are overdubbed in Macedonian. The method by which this is done is roughly equivalent to what you might imagine Mark and Javan doing in 7th grade if they decided to re-record the dialogue for the movie ?Can't buy me love? replacing every third word with Quadco. Come to think of it, pretty much all Macedonian entertainment is akin to a bad B-movie, but without the irony of it being so bad it's good.